The choice of the cross (№ 217601)

There was one simple-minded villager who lived by the labor of his hands, but earned very little: he had enough money to feed himself and his family. Once he went to the seashore, sat down on a stone and began to watch as large ships with rich goods approached the marina, and then these goods were unloaded and brought to the city for sale. And a sinful thought struck him in the head: "Why did the Lord send wealth to all people and all contentment, and leave others to live in poverty?" And he began to murmur on his miserable share. Meanwhile, the midday sun was very hot; the poor man began to overcome a nap, and he quietly fell asleep. And he dreams that he stands at the base of a high mountain; a venerable old man with a long beard approaches him and says to him: - Come behind me! He obeyed and went after him. They walked for a long time and, finally, came to such a place where a great many crosses of every kind and of various sizes lay. There were crosses large and small, gold and silver, copper and iron, stone and wooden. And the old man said to him: “You see how many crosses are here?” Choose any for yourself and carry it to the top of that very mountain that you saw before you. Our simplet looked at the golden cross: so beautiful he is, as if the red sun shines. This cross liked him, and he wanted to take it on his shoulders, but no matter how hard he worked, he could not only raise this cross, but also move it from its place. “No,” the old man tells him, “it’s obvious that you will not bring this cross up the hill.” Take another - silver. Maybe he will be able to. A simpleton took a silver cross. This one, indeed, was lighter than gold, but still he couldn’t do anything with it. It was the same with copper, and with iron, and with stone crosses. “There is nothing to do,” the old man tells him, “take one of the wooden crosses.” Then he took the simplest little smallest of wooden crosses and easily and soon carried him to that mountain. He was glad that he had finally come, one cross in his strength, and asked his companion: - And what kind of reward will I be for it? “So that you yourself decide what to reward you with,” he answered him, “I will tell you that this is for the crosses that you saw.” The golden cross that you first liked so much is the royal cross. You think to yourself: how good and easy it is to be a king. And you can’t imagine that the royal power is the heaviest cross. And the silver cross is the cross of all those who are clothed with power, is the cross of the pastors of the Church of God, the cross of the closest servants of the kings. All of them also have many worries and sorrows. The copper cross is the cross of all those to whom God has sent wealth. You envy them and think how happy they are. And the rich are harder to live than you. After your labors, you can safely fall asleep: no one will touch your wretched hut and your little good. And a rich man always - day and night - is afraid that someone would deceive him, rob him, set his house on fire. In addition, the rich for wealth will give his answer to God: how he uses his wealth. But misfortune will happen - the rich man will become impoverished: how many sorrows will then fall upon him! But the iron cross is a cross of military men. Ask those who were at war, and they will tell you how often they had to spend nights on bare, damp ground, endure hunger and cold. A stone cross is a cross of trading people. You like their life because they don’t have to work, how are you? But doesn’t it ever happen that a merchant goes overseas, spends all his capital on a product, and the whole product dies from a shipwreck, and an unhappy merchant returns home as a complete poor man? But the wooden cross, which you so easily brought up the mountain, this is your cross. You complained that your life is difficult, but now you see that it is much easier than the life of other people. The heart expert, the Lord, knew that in any other rank and position you would have destroyed your soul, so He gave you the most humble, easiest cross - the wooden cross. So, go and do not complain about the Lord God for your poor share. The Lord gives everyone a cross according to his strength - how many who can bear. At the last words of the elder, the villager woke up, thanked God for a sensible dream, and from that time on he never again murmured against God.